Many reports about romance scams have involved famous faces. Anne’s case — in which someone pretended to be Brad Pitt — made headlines. But fraudsters don’t need celebrity personas to deceive people. They can pose as ordinary strangers, as Melody, now 49, found out the hard way.
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Everything started in 2017 on Meetic. Melody matched with a man calling himself Norbert and they hit it off. They chatted about many topics and gradually revealed pieces of their lives — exactly what one expects when getting to know someone on a dating site. Only it wasn’t what it seemed. “He cast a net around me,” she says. “He started contacting me more and more, asking what I did each day, which relatives I got along with… I told him I didn’t go out much because I live with a disability and use a wheelchair. He understood that I was fairly isolated and he learned how to exploit my weaknesses.”
Because their conversations went well, Melody suggested they meet in person. Norbert agreed, but weeks passed and they never arranged a date. When she pushed for a meeting, he claimed he had inherited a boat located in North Africa and needed to go there to sell it. He offered to show her the boat over Skype, and during that video tour he had an accomplice “accidentally” knock the phone so that the camera would appear to stop working. “He told me the camera was broken — the perfect excuse to stay in contact only by voice,” she now realizes.
That was when the trap tightened. He began asking for help to cover repairs on the boat before it could be sold. It was always wrapped in flattering language; he insisted he was asking only as a last resort and that there was no one else around, all designed to trigger her sympathy. At first Melody refused to send the 500 euros he requested, but she eventually relented. After that, the problems that supposedly needed her assistance multiplied, and so did the money demands, always accompanied by promises to repay her. Looking back, she says it’s clear now that the outlandish stories were fabricated, but at the time she was under Norbert’s sway and couldn’t think straight. Because he knew about her disability, he convinced her to provide her banking logins to “make things easier” — and then used them to siphon funds from her accounts. “It was the biggest mistake of my life, but I only realized it afterward,” Melody says.
When she noticed withdrawals from an account belonging to her daughter, where Melody had placed 29,600 euros from a life insurance payout, she confronted Norbert. He claimed he had forgotten to log out at an internet café and that someone else had stolen the money. That lie was the last straw. Melody immediately changed her passwords and cut off all contact. Other online scammers tried to target her afterward, but she managed to fend them off more quickly. The whole ordeal continued until 2019 and ultimately cost her about 100,000 euros.
Deeply affected by the experience, Melody wrote a book, 97.53 %, Profession Arnacoeur, to raise awareness and help prevent others from falling into the same kind of trap. “These scams are so meticulously staged; scammers create a powerful emotional hold,” she warns. “If you’ve just met someone, especially if you haven’t met face to face yet, you shouldn’t be asked for money — and certainly not pressured to give it.”
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